The context of these remarks is the current pandemic and the associated economic crisis. While in prayer specifically for these events and those so terribly affected by them, our sequence of readings came to Luke 10 last night.
Luke 10
- Luke 10:4 “Do not greet anyone on the way.” This sounds similar to our present social distancing rules – Jesus is not unfamiliar with, nor surprised by this development! We can work within this framework. This was the initial verse indicating some application to this current pandemic and economic crisis.
- Luke 10:5,7 “Proclaim ‘Peace’…Do not move around from house to house!” The church is the voice that declares, with God’s creative power, into creation: “Peace!” And interestingly, we do not have to move around a lot to do that!
- Luke 10:8-9 “Eat with people, …heal the sick who are there.” The kingdom is present. We are the carriers and the stewards of healing, deliverance, and the nearness and presence of the kingdom of God.
- Luke 10:11 Whether those around us accept the peace from the kingdom of heaven or not, be sure of this: “The Kingdom of God is near”.
- Luke 10:18-20 With the deliverances – Jesus proclaims that he saw the most massive deliverance of all time, because heaven is free of Satan. “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. …But rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
In the church’s authoritative and creative declaration, “Peace!” there is healing and deliverance, even in an environment constrained by various kinds of social distancing strategies.
Acts 19
Morover, that a massive deliverance has occurred on a completely different level was then emphasised by a mental image of a falling giant, which came with the words: “God has taken out a global giant!” In this current environment, with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated economic crisis, we are dealing with the fallout of God taking out a “global giant”.
The fear and the economic consequences mirror those described in Acts 19 when people turned away from their previous idolatry in response to Paul stating, in Ephesus, “man-made gods are no gods at all”. The whole city went into disarray. Community leaders, unfortunately, began to react in ways that escalated the situation. Turmoil and shouting became chaotic, but then united into a single cry. Even Paul’s friends begged him not to walk into the face of the enraged crowd. In the end it was a city clerk who brought quiet. He had sufficient authority to command them to go home, because the higher authorities would quickly clamp down on them. Incidentally, we must note that this clerk was not the highest authority!
The man-made gods of witchcraft and magic are not gods (though some attribute too much power to them). The man-made gods of finance are not God (as useful as finance is as a tool). The man made gods of government are not God (as useful as government is for maintaining civil order). What the Lord is saying is that the chaos we are seeing is the result of a high level power encounter in which God has taken out a global giant. This is a time to boldly and courageously declare the word of God – because the promise of the Lord from Acts 19:20 is this: “The word of the Lord continued powerfully to spread and prevail.”
Prayer
We declare
- peace, healing and deliverance to those we are connected with,
- the kingdom of heaven is present, for those close to us, and those far from us labouring so tirelessly in this crisis,
- “Nothing will harm you!”, and
- the word of the Lord will powerfully spread and prevail.
